


Literacy in Thedas

by owlmoose



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Dwarf Culture & Customs, Gen, Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:34:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23024089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlmoose/pseuds/owlmoose
Summary: A few brief thoughts on literacy among the casteless dwarves in the Dragon Age universe, and how that might play out with a Brosca PC.
Kudos: 5
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Literacy in Thedas

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written on Tumblr, in response to an ask about literacy rates in Orzammar.

I first started thinking about this topic when I created my Brosca Warden, Kasia. I decided to make Kasia illiterate, and it got interesting, because there are multiple situations in which the Warden is expected to be able to read, and working around them made for some fun character development stuff. She can't read the Wanted posters, or Genitivi's notes, or any of the other random books, letters, or scraps of paper they come across out in the world, especially not at first, so she needs to ask others for help, a difficult thing when you're trying to get the world to take you seriously as a Gray Warden.

As I considered the question in terms of the big picture, I came to think that there’s definitely a range of literacy levels among the casteless in Orzammar. There are some, like Kasia, who can’t read at all. Others attain enough reading skill to read basic signage, to navigate a shop, maybe up to the fairly simple language that you might see in a children’s story. (I put Natia Brosca from my story “Justify the Means” into this category, and also Sigrun before her friend in the Legion teaches her to love books). A few do become fully literate, mostly the higher-level Carta folks who have to be able to make business deals. I also think it makes sense that some of the noble hunters would learn to read beyond the everyday, because it’s seen as an advantage when trying to attract a higher class of patron — which is why, in my headcanon, Rica Brosca can read very well. But for most of the casteless, there’s no reason to make learning that skill a priority.

I do believe that most casteless have at least basic mathematical literacy, because it’s useful to be able to do sums and to know when someone is cheating you. Math is more useful than reading for most folks in that world, so that’s what everyone is taught.

I have to give some props to the Dragon Age writers here, because it had never occurred to me that the Warden or any of the major characters might be illiterate, until we learn in DA2 that Fenris can’t read, and the realization hit me like a thunderbolt: of course in a medieval society like Thedas there are people in who can’t read at all, and those who fall all along the functional literacy scale. It was a real eye-opener, in terms of noticing the assumptions I was making about characters. While I've never played another main character in a Dragon Age game who doesn't know how to read, I'm much more likely, now, to think of the possibility in NPCs and others.


End file.
